GLIful

So I'm pretty smitten with the GLI.  It's a great car that makes me look forward to driving it, every time.  You might say it fills me with glee.  With that in mind, I couldn't think of a more appropriate license plate:

How far we've come

I recently rolled 12,000 miles on the GLI and have been giving quite a bit of thought as to how fundamentally good of a car it is.  My mind wandered back to my teenage years, and to The Car that started my obsession with factory sleepers.  

It was 1987, and my favorite car magazine did a review of the BMW M5.  This picture!  While looking like a pretty ordinary BMW 5-series with chunkier wheels, tires, and a discreet spoiler, this picture really lit my fire.  I daydreamed about what it must feel like to momentarily fly over the top of a hill in a car that flies under the visual radar to all but the car-crazed.

Now, for the past year and a half, I've really enjoyed driving the GLI.  It's a daily delight, and I'm continually impressed by how competent it is.  I also like its subtle aggression:

Hmmm...it kind of reminds me of something:

Factory sleeper.  Subtle differentiation.  Decklid spoiler.  Looking at them side-by-side, one of the things that strikes me are how tall the cabin is on the M5 compared with the GLI, as well as the comparatively long overhangs.

My mind started wandering as I was driving one day about how the GLI compares to the original M5  from a performance perspective.  I imagined it would be pretty close.  But how close?

I took C/D's stats for the '87 M5 and compared them with the stats for the '19 GLI.  While you can go off and compare for yourself, I took the liberty of pulling out some of the key specifications:

	2019 GLI	1987 M5
Wheelbase	105.6	103.3
Length	185.2	189
Width	70.8	66.9
Height	56.8	55.7
Passenger volume	94	86
Trunk volume	14	14
Horsepower	228	256
Torque	258	243
Curb weight	3178	3504
C/D observed fuel economy	25	15
0-60	5.8	6.3
0-100	13.8	17.3
0-110	23.2	-
0-120	-	20.7
1/4 mile	14.4@102	14.6@95
Braking 70-0	153	166
Roadholding	.98 g	.83 g

Dimensionally, the cars are pretty similar.  While considerably shorter overall, the GLI has a longer wheelbase.  It's a bit wider and shorter as well.  Passenger volume is up significantly, and the two cars have equivalent trunk volumes.

The M5 was all about the engine.  The GLI gives up 28 hp and makes 15 more torque.  However, there's no comparing the sound of a naturally aspirated 6 compared with a turbo 4.  Just no difference.  I'll take the music of the 6 over the blown 4 any day.

Despite the power deficit, the GLI weighs almost 330 pounds less than the M5.  Dropping weight makes everything better, and that proves out in the acceleration numbers.  All numbers here are comparing the manual M5 with the manual GLI.  While the GLI does the quarter 0.2 seconds faster than the M5, it's is moving 7 mph faster.  After there, the GLI just keeps pulling.  The C/D data shows the M5 going to 110 in 23.2 while the GLI hits 120 in 20.7, so the gap just keeps widening.

The weight advantage also plays out in braking, and modern rubber certainly contributes to the roadholding difference.

The thing that is stunning but not surprising is the difference in fuel economy.  10 mpg better across the board.  That underscores what's impressed me consistently since getting into the GLI, as I frequently get over 36 mpg on the highway.  When driven sedately, the GLI sips fuel, and the abundance of torque makes short-shifting easy, proving that while you may buy horsepower, you mostly drive torque.  I regularly find myself tooling around town in 4th gear.

Now let's consider the pricing.  In 1987, the C/D M5 had an as-tested price of $48,470.  In 2021 dollars, that comes out to a bit over $118K.  Considering that C/D's 2019 M5 Competition had an as-tested price of $130K, that's pretty consistent.  Of course, the modern M5 is an entirely different beast, weighing over 4200 pounds with over 600 hp and a quarter time of 10.9 at 130 mph.  That's moving.  It needs a shade over 15 seconds to hit 150 mph.  That's seriously quick.

Meanwhile, the GLI come in around $30K.  Considering that its performance is comparable to the original M5 for about 25% of the price, I feel like it's a pretty remarkable value.  The GLI performs better, weighs less while carrying more safety gear (airbags, blind spot sensors), has more usable space, and gets significantly better mileage.

The fact that a "people's car" is so capable demonstrates just how far we've come and how good modern cars are.

Let's roll!

 After resisting externalizing cargo for at least a decade, our camping trip last summer was just too space constrained, if I'm honest.  We were really wedged into the van, using bungee cords to hold cargo in the back, having items stacked in the center aisle, behind people's feet, just anywhere it would fit.  Planning a southwestern adventure, it became clear that going external would create more space in the car and make everyone more comfortable and most likely happier.

There was much deliberation about how to go external.  Initially, I thought about a trailer hitch and a hitch-mounted cargo tray.  Depending on the system, accessing the tailgate could be challenging.  It also would strain the rear suspension, as weight would be added well aft of the van.

Eventually, I decided that a roof box was the way to go.  My local dealer did a fine job installing the roof rails and crossbars, and we ended up selecting the biggest possible roof box we could find - the Thule Motion XT XXL.  Good grief, it's a big beastie.  At over 7.5 feet long, more than three feet wide, and 1.5 feet tall, it represents an additional 22 cubic feet of space.  The thinking is that everything we need to sleep, including 9-person tent, camp chairs, camp table, and assorted tarps will fit easily.  Since it is so long, I'm also thinking that we can be more efficient from a packing standpoint by putting the sleeping bags in there, unrolled and flat.  We shall see, as we need to do a variety of test loads to determine what will fit while staying within the 165 pound load limit of the box itself.

Overall, on the van, it looks...big:

So big that you can see it when you look up through the sunroof.

It's not particularly large from the front, with comparatively small frontal area:

However, from the back, it's a different story.  Mostly because it looks like someone added another story to the van:

One of the features I really like is the variable position mounting system, allowing the box to be positioned on the roof rack while still allowing full tailgate access:

Securing it to the crossbars is very straightforward.  I haven't taken it for a test drive yet.  I'm looking forward to doing that this weekend to get a feel for wind noise, and to see if I can perceive any significant change in vehicle dynamics.

As an aside, one thing I thought was kind of funny was this picture from the owner's manual:

Where have I seen that shape before?  Ah yes, my dearly departed Passat:

I've always thought the Passat had clean, timeless, well-proportioned lines.  It really was a good-looking sedan back in 1998, and I think the design weathered time pretty well.

Experiments with Sugaring

We were on a walk the other morning and saw three maple trees tapped in a neighbor's yard.  I thought to myself, "hey, we have maple trees in our back yard and a tap from a past maple festival," so when we got home, I got to work.  I knew from attending maple festivals in the past that the weather was currently perfect for sugaring - under freezing at night, and over freezing during the day.

I gathered the tap, a drill, and a milk jug for collecting the sap.  We went into the back yard, bored a whole in the tree, and sure enough, the sap started flowing.

This got us thinking.  We looked round the yard and spotted a couple more maples.  Here's a shot of a particularly large one.  Based on some reading, we went ahead and put in three taps.

Given the right conditions, this tree will produce almost three gallons of sap per day!

After the collection process, it was time to boil.  We didn't do anything fancy, just collected it in a Dutch oven and turned up the heat.

It was fascinating to watch the sap transform from a cool, slightly sweet, refreshing beverage that is clear in color:

To an increasingly dark and much sweeter substance as the water boiled off:

It really is amazing how much moisture boils off before you get close to the point where you have nice, viscous syrup:

Here's a shot close to the finishing stage, with a ladle-full of fresh sap for contrast.

After much boiling, we got to that beautiful, golden color:

The first boil, I let it go too long and ended up with grainy, delicious maple butter.  Using a Thermapen, I started to get more precise, looking for temperatures between 217 to 219 degrees:

The result was delicious, golden syrup with just a bit of condensed sugar at the bottom.

We found that two passes through a coffee filter removed impurities to the point it could be poured on pancakes.  The first pass goes through a coffee filter on the way into the boiling pan.  The second pass is after the sap has been reduced "enough."

On a Sunday morning, we were just completed the finishing boil for a batch and poured it straight out of the pot onto fresh, blueberry pancakes:

It was delicious and fun, and generated a lot of conversation about how fortunate we are to be able to walk into any given grocery store and find maple syrup on any day of the year.

If you have maple trees, I highly recommend giving it a shot the next time temperatures are above freezing during the day and below freezing at night.  If you're looking to get started, I thought this article did a nice job explaining the process.  I didn't do a sap hydrometer or use an evaporator, I just boiled on the stove and it all worked out.

Energy Consumption

One interesting thing about the Volkswagen is how it can display the top three energy consumers in the car.  As I played with internal settings, I found some surprises.

In this first shot, I have the driver's seat set to maximum heat, the wing mirror defrosters on, and the heat set at 72 degrees.  It was a balmy 15 degrees fahrenheit, and the coolant and oil were at operating temperatures.

What surprised me was what happened when I fired up the rear defroster.  It consumed more energy than the seat heater - I didn't expect that.  In my small sample size straw polls, most folks think that a seat heater would consume more electricity than the rear defroster.

Predictably, when I maxed out the passenger's seat heater, it dropped the wing mirror power consumption out of the top three.

Turning of the passenger's seat heater and dialing the driver's seat back to the middle of its three settings brings its energy consumption down to parity with the wing mirrors,

while using the lowest of the three settings on the driver's seat consume even less power than the wing mirrors.

Again, it's just a neat detail that car people might appreciate and find interesting.  I suppose this would be another thing to add to the "delighters" section of this post.

Taking Care of Business

I noticed that the grey van had a bit of a rust bubble on the driver's rear quarter panel, near the top of the wheel arch.  With the rust spot in a relatively inconspicuous place, and the van at the ripe old age of 12, I decided to take on the repair myself.

Let it be known that I have zero experience with bodywork.  That said, I do have a Dremel and willingness to experiment, so I decided to go for it.

The first step was to get rid of that cancerous rust.  I put on some safety glasses, selected a cutting tool, and went after it.  From the side, I didn't have to grind away too much of the paint and rust:

However, as you can see in the next picture, I did slip and ground away some perfectly good paint.  Not my intent, and I certainly muttered under my breath when that happened.

If you lie on the ground and look up at the fender, you can see where the metal folded in and where the real problem was:

I popped out to AutoZone to pick up some supplies, including grey metal primer, masking tape, a small can of Bondo, and some very fined finishing sandpaper: 

When I got home, I took a closer look at the fender, and saw more rust lurking:

Back to work with the Dremel, I cut away more and more rusty metal:

Looking around, I still wasn't satisfied that I had eliminated all of the rust, so I ended up with a pretty decent-sized hole that I cut away:

With all of the surface prep done, I plied my Bondo skills for the first time.  Again, since this was in a hard-to-see place, I wasn't concerned with perfection - I just wanted to eliminate any rust spread.  My first attempt was kind of lumpy:

I worked it a bit more, smoothed out the Bondo, and taped off the area for priming.  I also covered the wheel and tire to catch any overspray:

I have past experience with spray paint, so I slowly and methodically added layer after layer:

Hot halogen work lights helped accelerate the drying process:

My end result certainly isn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination.  I could have spent much more time wet sanding to get closer to a nice, even finish.

However, my goal was "good enough," so I applied a top coat using the touch-up paint I keep for rock chips and called it a day:

A bit later on, I noticed a bit of rust starting behind the fuel filler door.  I think this is a design flaw on Honda's part, as there is no drain hole.  When it rains and you pop the filler door open, you can see where the water accumulates.

Once again, I decided to get out in front of the rust before it became a problem.  I attached the rust spot vigorously:

Once again, my repair was crude but functional.  The van still looks good from 20 feet away or so.

Another thing I've noticed is that as the van has aged, the headlights have become somewhat foggy and cloudy in appearance:

I got pretty aggressive with a polishing compound, and I was pretty pleased at the result.  Again, not perfect, but much of the cloudiness had been polished away.

If you take care of your equipment, odds are it will take care of you.  This is one of the reasons I enjoy hand-waxing and hand-washing the vehicles.  It gives me a chance to really scrutinize the body and see if there are any potential issues out there, lurking below the surface.  Rock chips on the nose?  Just take care of them.  Take an extra-long look after winter or a long road trip, particularly around where the hood meets the front fascia, as stone chips there are harder to see.

With over 177,000 miles now, the grey van is halfway to 300,000.  With a bit of care and attention, I'm doing my part to ensure it gets there.

Not Snake Oil

Over the past couple of years, ceramic coating has made a splash as a way to protect the finish on vehicles.  This year, I thought I would give it try.  It was a pretty time consuming process, and I spent plenty of time working on all of the cars.  Late into the night, I cranked up some music and methodically spent time in the garage, prepping and applying.

I have to say, the results were visually impressive.  I did the paint, the glass, the wheels, even the exhaust tips:

Of course, in my semi-obsessive way, I also did all of the door jambs:

You can tell how that it's certainly effective from a reflectivity standpoint, check out the reflection of the door latch in this picture:

Overall, it helps the car really look good:

However it's easy to look good on a sunny summer day.  My real question was, how would it hold up over time?  Ceramic coatings purport to last longer than traditional waxes.  I was skeptical, as only time will tell.

Eight months after application, here we are in the middle of winter.  It's been an odd January, sloppy and wet, with a bit of snow.  Currently, it's 30 degrees with gentle flakes floating down.  That said, it's warm enough that it's just accumulating as water on a parked vehicle.

I was out and about, and shot this video.  The engine was pretty cold, so this is moderate acceleration in second and a shift into third:

I have to say, I'm super impressed.  The water simply flies off the windshield and hood.  I haven't washed the car for a while, I've just have been driving it around.  Even more amazing, at least to me, is here's a photo from after that drive, after the car sat in the garage for an hour or so:

The front of the car looks essentially like it was freshly washed, which just blows me away.

Things are a little different in the rear, where spray gets kicked up on the back of the car:

I have to say, of all the car care products I've tried over the years, this ceramic coating provides the longest-lasting protection, by far.  I'll be most interested to see how long it continues to be this effective.